The stands teemed with Cuban-Americans, booing their lungs out at a person they believed to be a Fidel Castro apologist. Their weapon was their voices, but another Cuban-American could use his body.
Dolphins linebacker Kiko Alonso put the clinching hit on the 49ers quarterback, stonewalling him at the 2-yard line as time ran out on San Francisco, and the Dolphins escaped Sunday with a 31-24 win that, to many fans and Alonso, represented more than a football game.
Alonso, who grew up in the United States, is second generation, his father fleeing Cuba when he was 4. After the outspoken Kaepernick, already a polarizing figure for igniting the national anthem protests that have swept across the sports world, defended Castro’s regime, it was only fitting for Alonso that he put the final crunch on Kaepernick.
“Just the fact that he wore a shirt that he wore, I think that’s a little ignorant, so there was a little bad blood there,” Alonso told the Dan Le Batard Show on Monday, referring to a shirt Kaepernick wore in August portraying the longtime Cuban leader/dictator.
Alonso said he did not speak directly to Kaepernick about the situation.
“No, I had nothing to say,” Alonso told the Miami Herald. “Usually, I just try to play my game. But I did try to hit him.”
After the game, the 26-year-old Alonso donned a bandanna of the Cuban flag.
“I haven’t worn it before, but I definitely wanted to wear it because I thought it was a very important weekend for Cubans,” Alonso said.
Castro died Friday at age 90, sparking a debate over how the world should remember the nearly six-decade long ruler who both executed and imprisoned dissidents while representing, to many, a revolutionary ideal. Miami, a landing spot for many exiled Cubans, danced in the streets upon hearing the news, and into that scene walked Kaepernick, who had defended Castro just days before.
On a Wednesday conference call, he was grilled by Miami media about his Castro shirt, and cited the education system in Cuba as an upside to Castro’s reign.
After the game Sunday, Kaepernick tried to defuse the situation, explaining that he does not support “the oppressive things [Castro] did.”
But for Alonso, the incentive was already in place.
“Yeah, it matters,” Kiko told the Miami Herald of Kaepernick’s perceived defense of Castro. “… I did see what happened. So, yeah, there were some feelings on my part.”